The LVCVA, together with its advertising agency R&R Partners, gauges the "Vegas IQ" of Las Vegas' various feeder markets nationally and internationally by measuring familiarity, performance index, awareness and experience of Las Vegas among consumers, according to Pope.

“We utilize focus groups to test all advertising concepts and slogans. Furthermore, a variety of other research methodologies are used to pinpoint those consumers most apt to be receptive to Las Vegas messages.”

Focus groups are a great method for testing the brand through discussion and are of course qualitative studies. Another method to gauge a brand’s effectiveness is visitor questionnaires conducted on a routine basis. These provide a measurement that can be layered with the focus group studies to understand how messaging resonates with consumers and in market visitors.

“Conduct research to uncover your consumers' emotional connection to your product and strive to create a branding campaign that effectively articulates those sentiments,” suggested Pope.

Another major component to ensuring a brand has staying power is to get the community it represents to buy into it. The employees, board of directors, politicians and residents all need to believe in the brand and that the core message represents the destination experience.

The LVCVA has a board of directors comprised of 14 members representative of the private industry and local governments throughout Southern Nevada. The board approves the LVCVA’s marketing plan and the staff follow objectives and strategies outlined in the plan to arrive at What Happens Here, Stays Here.

This community buy in and appreciation that the messaging truly represents the destination is why the brand for Las Vegas is going into its sixth manifestation. The Las Vegas brand is internationally acclaimed and still excites the consumers.

So how do you ensure your branding will resonate with your target audience? Here are some tactics to employ when evaluating your brand:

Tactics:

• Need to continuously monitor the brand and the visitors’ perception of the brand through visitor profile studies, focus group studies and/or advertising testing.
• Need to ensure every facet of the organization is using the same branding messaging and not sending out conflicting messages. Everything should be seen by the marketing team before it reaches the public to ensure the brand guidelines are in place.
• If the organization doesn’t already have a brand guidelines book, it needs to create one for every member of the team to follow and reference.
• If the organization is about to undergo a branding exercise, do research first. Don’t begin a branding exercise without knowing who is coming to the destination and why, who looks at the destination and chooses not to come and why and what the overall perception of the destination is amongst the various generational targets.
• If the organization just launched a new branding campaign, don’t forget to test it even after a year to see if the message is reaching the audience and getting them to react the way the new brand was supposed to make them react. Did the branding help get more visitors in the target markets? If so, great and if not, why.
• A brand can always be fine tuned and developed. It should never be stagnant. Nike has not stuck with the same swoosh for decades without adding to the campaign and adjusting it to fit today’s market. You shouldn’t either.